Affordable eyes in the sky, drones have fast become a popular and versatile tool for land mapping. Now ESA-backed startup Sysveo has developed a way of integrating user-made augmented reality objects into a drone’s video stream.

This allows the drone operator to analyse data in real time and adapt the flight accordingly, making operations more time- and cost-efficient.

As a drone documents the site of new infrastructure, for instance, the operator could see how it would appear in the landscape.

Sysveo, specialising in customised drone integration for professional users, is a French company supported through ESA’s Business Incubation Centre Sud France. As well as augmented reality, Sysveo also provides anti-collision and indoor geolocalisation software for its drones.

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A free ESA app turns a popular iPhone-controlled ‘home drone’ into a spacecraft. The augmented reality game lets owners of Parrot AR.Drone quadcopters attempt dockings with a simulated International Space Station while flying their drones for real – in the process helping to improve robotic rendezvous methods. This new AstroDrone app is part of a scientific crowdsourcing project by ESA’s Advanced Concepts Team, gathering data to teach robots to navigate their environments.

Quelle: ESA